Dressing with quantity of particulate material

ABSTRACT

A DRESSING INCLUDES A QUANTITY OF PARTICULATE MATERIAL ENCLOSED IN AN OUTER LAYER INTERNALLY LINED WITH A NON-POROUS, NON-WETTABLE MATERIAL. THE PARTICULATE MATERIAL CAUSES THE DRESSING TO CONFORM TO THE SHAPE OF A CORN, BUNION, CYST, OR LOCALIZED AREA OF SWELLING, PROVIDING COMPLETE COVERAGE OF SUCH BODY PROTRUSION AND REDISTRIBUTION OF A MAJOR PORTION OF PRESSURE FROM SHOES OR CLOTHING TO REGIONS SURROUNDING THE SWELLING THEREBY MINIMIZING PAIN AND IRRITATION.   D R A W I N G

United States Patent Grubel DRESSING WITH QUANTITY OF PARTICULATE MATERIAL [76] Inventor: Henry M. Grubel, 15 Suncrest Dr.,

Six Hills, NY. 11746 [22] Filed: Apr. 16, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 134,754

[52] US. Cl. 128/149, 128/153 {51] Int. Cl A6lh 19/00 [58] Field of Search 128/153, 155-157, 128/160, 161, 162, 165, 166, 166.5, 149, 25

[56 1 References Cited I UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,548,420 12/1970 Spence 128/153 2,141,699 12/1938 Stern 128/582 Primary ExaminerLawrence W. Trapp Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Paul J. Sutton 5 7 ABSTRACT A dressing includes a quantity of particulate material enclosed in an outer layer internally lined with a nonporous, non-wettable material. The particulate material causes the dressing to conform to the shape of a corn, bunion, cyst, or localized area of swelling, providing complete coverage of such body protrusion and redistribution of a major portion of pressure from .shoes or clothing to regions surrounding the swelling thereby minimizing pain and irritation.

1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEBJULZ $821354 INVENTOIZ HENQY M. GRUBEL B Qoss (PM ATTOENEY-S DRESSING WITH QUANTITY OF PARTICULATE MATERIAL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to improvements in dressings, and more particularly to adress ing which conforms to the shape of a localized region of swelling to cushion the region and reduce pressure from adjacent articles of clothing or external forces on the swollen region.

Conventional dressings all suffer from a common disadvantage in that they do not properly conform to regions of swelling but tend to hang on the top of the swelling. As a result, the dressing tends to accentuate the swelling and localized pressure on the region can be quite painful and also produce irritation which further increases the swelling. Further, conventional dressings often slip and expose the irritated regions. Dressing slippage has another deleterious effect in that even a small degree of slipping if relatively frequent tends to irritate the wound and the surrounding skin tissue. a

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a dressing which readily conforms to the exterior shape of a region of swelling and adjacent regions to cushion the swollen region and redistribute pressure to the adjacent regions whereby to greatly reduce pressure which might otherwise be applied to the swollen area.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a dressing which readily conforms to the contours of a region of swelling.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a dressing includes a quantity of particulate material which permits the dressing to conform to the contours of an enlargement of, protrusion from or swelling of the surface areas of the body.

The dressing is preferably considerably larger in area than the swollen region to which it is applied. For instance, the ratio of normal to swollen areas may be to I. When applied to the swelling, the particulate material distributes itself after a short period so that the surface of the dressing remote from the body is relatively flat, with a large quantity of the particulate material overlying the non-swollen regions and only a small quantity of material overlying the swollen region. A blow delivered to the dressing is taken across the flat upper surface relatively uniformly and in consequence the force of the blow is distributed uniformly over a large area; in the above example, is distributed 90 percent to the normal tissues and only 10% to the damaged tissues.

It is further apparent that close conformance of the dressing to the contour of the body greatly reduces the tendency of the dressing to slip and slide as is the case with dressings that simply lie on top of a swelling.

The basic structure of the dressing comprises a relatively thick region of particulate material enclosed in a thin, flexible, non-wettable and non-porous material. An outer covering may also be provided; the characteristics of this covering depending upon the end use of the dressing. If it is desired for the dressing to permit the covered region to breathe, the covering may be gauze or spun bound polyester if wetting is not desirable. If the use of the dressing is such that breathing is not necessary and retention of moisture is undesirable, then a non-porous, non-wettable outer covering may also be employed.

The dressing may be employed by athletes engaged in body contact sports in which event foam rubber may be applied about the dressing or over the dressing to further reduce the efiects of impact.

The dressing may be held on by tape or a binding or by other conventional means.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic view in elevation illustrating the bandage applied to a body swelling.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring specifically to the drawings there is illustrated one form of realization of the principles of the present invention which comprises a dressing 10 arranged in a configuration similar to the well-known band-aid whereina wound covering pad 11 is secured to a surface 13 of plastic strip 12, surface 13 being provided with an adhesive coating to permit the applied dressing to stick to skin tissue adjacent a swollen region. Of coursethe dressing need not include strip 12 but may comprise merely a pad 11 of the type to be described in detail below and may be held in place by other convenient means such as adhesive tape, gauze, ace bandage, etc.

Pad 11 includes an outer cover layer 14 of pliable flexible material which in one embodiment of the invention is porous and permits the covered area to .breathe" under the dressing. If the dressing is to be employed over areas having a surface wound the layer 14 should be non-wettable. Spun bound polyester gives excellent results and other non-woven fabrics produced by conventional processes would be satisfactory. The purpose of cover layer 14 in such event is, in addition to the breathing function, to prevent the contact surface of the pad from caking and sticking to the wound when moistened either by water or blood. If the bandage is to-be used over a region without a surface wound, such as corn, bunion, etc., then the layer 14 may be wettable aswell as porous. A woven fabric is an example of such a material.

Cover layer 14 is coated interiorly with a flexible layer 16 of non-wettable non-porous material to prevent moisture from passing therethrough and into a large body of particulate material 17 which would produce caking thereof. The particulate 'material 17 is composed of finely divided material such as fine sand, granular plastic, etc. Region 18 in which the material 17 is situated is quite thick (vertical height in FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings) relative to the surrounding layers 14, 16, combined. The height of the region 18 may be as little as l/ l 6 inch for small pimple like swelling but preferably is at least 543 inch in height or as great as k inch depending upon the size of the swelling; the purpose being to allow the material 17 to distribute itself so as to conform to and completely cover the region of interest. The material 17-should loosely fill the region 18 so that the material may readily shift to conform to the swelling. On the other hand, the material should not be so loose that if the dressing is applied to a vertical or partially vertical surface gravity or movement of the body causes a large proportion of the material to accumulate adjacent the bottom of the dressing so that little of the material remains adjacent the upper part of the swollen region, thus leaving it unprotected.

Referring now specifically to FIG. 3 of the'accompanying drawings, there is illustrated the distribution of the material 17 around a body swelling 21. The finely particulated material 17, being confined within the region 18, is constrained to be distributed across swelling 2] to provide a relatively flat surface which extends over the swelling and adjacent areas.

The surface of the dressing remote from the body is usually flat due to the fact that the force holding the dressing adjacent the wound is applied to this surface by a binding of some sort. Since this outer surface is flat, pressure applied to that surface is normally uniformly distributed over this surface. By choosing a dressing having a surface area considerably larger than the swelling, the great majority of the pressure is transmitted to the area surrounding the swelling. It is the ability of the dressing to present a generally flat surface remote from the body that permits this redistribution of pressure in contradistinction to prior art dressings which tend to accentuate the swollen region and do nothing to affect redistribution of external pressures thereon.

As previously indicated the principles of the present invention may be applied to many different types of arrangements, such as a band-aid, a pad like arrangement held on by strips of adhesive tape or an arrangement where the pad of material 17 with its layers 14 and 16 is held on by gauze, an ace bandage, etc. The latter arrangement may also be employed for instance on the top of the toes or foot where the sock and shoe hold the pad in place without the use of aseparate binder.

As previously indicated, the layer 14 may take many forms depending upon the use to which the dressing is to be put. Thus, although the layer 14 must be flexible it may be porous, or non-porous, wettable or nonwettable, may be gauze, paper, plastic, foam rubber. The layer 14 serves primarily to impart mechanical strength to the article and beyond that must conform only to the needs of its end use.

In all instances the pad 11 should be larger than the swollen region to insure distribution of the material 17 over large regions of the body adjacent the swollen region. A good rule to follow is that the adjacent and swollen areas should be in a ratio of at least 1 to l and preferably about to l or more if the swelling is very tender.

While I have described and illustrated specific embodiments of my invention, it will be clear that variations of the details of construction which are specifically illustrated and described may be resorted to without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An adhesive hygienic protective dressing for use in protecting protuberances extending from virtually any external portion of the body, comprising, in combination: an elongated strip of material possessing properties of pliable plastic, said elongated strip of material being formed with upper and lower surfaces that extend in substantially parallel planes, said lower surface of said elongated strip of material having portions thereof coated with adhesive material for holding the hygienic protective dressing to the body, a substantially pliable housing assembly secured to and extending downwardly from said upper surface of said elongated strip of material, said housing assembly disposed substantially midlength between outer extremities ofsaid elongated strip of material, said pliable housing assembly comprising an outer covering layer completely surrounding and defining a closed chamber therewithin, an inner covering layer disposed adjacent every inside portion of said outer covering layer and logger with said outer covering layer, completely surrounding and defining said closed chamber therewithin, said chamber being of a predetermined volume,a predetermined uantityof particulate material disposed within and occupying only a predetermined portion of said closed chamber, the volume of said particulate material within said closed chamber being less than the defined volume of the closed chgm bgr itself, said particulate material being movable within the confines of said closed chamber, said outer covering layer including an outside portion which extends substantially parallel with respect to portions of said elongated strip of material, said covering layer further including an inside portion extending substantially parallel with and in contact with said upper surface of said elongated strip of matea in 

